[Music] well hi there thank you for checking out this video my name is Adrian and I'm an IT project manager and in this video I am gonna tell you how you can become a project manager and I will be giving you a little bit about my story how I made the transition from an IT professional to someone managing large complex projects in the industry and I will be also covering a bit about you know what is nice about the job what is what challenges will you face if you decide to go that route and I will be giving you tips for your career plan so stay tuned I also run a blog which is called tactical project manager I will give you the link down in the video and on this block I provide tips and insights how you can become a project manager not just from a technical level but also as a person because keep in mind that this is a job a very demanding job but you can't just learn on a technical level in the course you need to actually practice a lot and how do you get there from a personality point of view that is something I'm gonna explain so stay tuned first of all let's start with the definition what is a project so a project is a major activity a big activity in a company or some organization which involves different people different departments different technologies maybe and it's something new which means it is outside of the typical operations of an organization it's for example the creation of a very new product or the design of a new process how to ship products to your customers and because it's something new something unfamiliar there's some risk involved some chance that it might fail and your job as a project manager of course is to to keep the balls moving yeah and to keep everything under control to make sure that the project goal is in the end reached I started factoring company in a ite kind of consultant slash developer job which was very nice I really enjoyed it I had wonderful colleagues I could travel a little bit so really cool but after some years I got bored a little bit because things started to repeat so I would see the same colleagues again I had to do support which I really didn't like because you get the same questions over and over again and I ended up wondering you know I don't want to do this for the rest of my life so what could be a good next step and I met a lot of great project managers impact in my company and I admire these people they were just you know wonderful persons to be with they were very confident they had travelled a lot they could tell great stories great and funny stories from their business trips and they were very respected in the organization and I really like that that appeared to me and I wanted to become one of them so I talked to my boss and explained him my plan and luckily he had just started some side project some innovation on the side and he was he had a project manager but he was looking for people who would support the project so what I did in the beginning I still kept my job my my IT consultant job but I every week I would spend a couple of hours with the project manager office of a project and I would provide help so a lot of different things basic things like creating presentations following up on tasks because that's the core of a project yeah you need to make sure that your team is doing the job and need to constantly check in with them this was really great I was not yet a project manager I would have liked to be one directly with a title and every but of course that's it would have been unrealistic so I just worked as an assistant so to say for a couple of months actually it was up to a year and after some changes because the project manager left I eventually was made the official project manager for this project and it was Kay it was okayed it took some time because I also had to grow personally it's a very intimidating experience if you imagine you're doing your current job you may be an engineer or something technical for example and suddenly you're a project manager it's a whole different type of work because you have to walk around a lot talk to a lot of people give give presentations in front of many people so a lot of things which I hadn't really done before so I need to get become this person first and and how do you learn that well you do it you take over small channels of work and just do it and learn and become better so after this one year I was made the project manager and I brought the project to the to the finish line which was a great feeling of course not easy and this is the first thing I want to tell you so as I said a project is something new something unfamiliar in the organization which means naturally some things will go wrong so you will have to deal with these unplanned things and you have to like that yeah you have to be a like a problem solver instead of someone who is just waiting for directions and and easily being or giving up anyway my my first project it was it was just a small team maybe five people and I was still doing some of the technical work myself I wasn't completely just doing the management part so and this is usually the Evolve my of a project management career so you start doing smaller projects and you grow project in project size and in the end after a couple of years I was really made a full-time project manager who was mainly who was only doing the management part which was of course what I liked and which is necessary because in big projects with a lot of people involved distributed teams complex technology for example you have to you have to have someone who is really focusing on the management part to keep all the the the stay strings alliant so that is that is a must and that's something I completely enjoy it because I that was something the person I really wanted to become and I did it I did a lot of business travel also we had projects in other countries like India Mexico or turkey and I got to interact with a lot of different cultures so it's it's I really liked it what I struggled with in the beginning I already gave you a few points like you have to you have to be much more you know outgoing and interacting with a lot of people so this is I found difficult in the beginning and also the communication part so how should I get my idea across to people do I email them email them do I show up at their desk do I do both how should I work my message and so not so easy and it took me quite a few attempts really to figure out what the right style how to inject with people then also project management means also a lot of pressure so you are you are somewhere in between the the project team who is doing the work the technical work and you know your manager different stakeholders who have all different agendas different interests and you are in between so you have to make this work and it's not an it's not an easy job for sure not but it's it's very fulfilling also because I get to work on a lot of things so it's not just technical it's really leading people motivating people I travel I help fixing things then when there's a problem I facilitate discussions I give speeches all these things really are part of the joy of being a project manager the question that many people have is how can I become a project manager and I keep it generic it doesn't matter if you're an IT or in engineering or some other field marketing for example because the paths are usually quite similar stages and the first thing you should note when you want to become a project manager is that you usually you have to prove first before you become a project manager you have to prove that you have that your right personality and that you have the skills like that you're a leader you are good at communicating and you you are a problem solver that's that's the core of the of the skills that the project manager has and you need to show that if you have the opportunity in your current department to become a project manager that's great so your boss already knows he knows your strengths your weaknesses talk to him see if he's got any project for you may be something small father's start it doesn't really matter what is important that is really a project which means it's some complexity something new involved different people different departments and involved that's what's necessary the other opportunity is to if there's nothing in your current that's a place of work or department to become a project manager is to to look at other departments what projects are they running who is the leader can I talk to them figure all this out and then really approach these people and ask the project managers if they have anything for you where you can help so it can be something small as I said organizing meetings creating presentations doing the the minutes and following up with people and and normally people the project managers they are always very busy so they are happy if someone skilled and proactive approaches them and offers his help so great thing to do of course you need to make this kind of official with your boss because it's a conflict between what you're doing right now and what you want to go where you want to go so make some agreement like I did where we said in the beginning I were 10% of my time on the project and 90% on my previous or on my current job and see how it goes just do the work see how you like it whether it fits you if you're learning if you're making progress and then just see how you can add up your contribution to get the buy-in from your boss to go more towards the project management drag that's how I did I did it and it's a very good way because while you're still the learner the assistant you're allowed to make mistakes this will happen so it's you don't risk of you know the run to the risk of really tanking a project because you're just not yet there yet you're not good enough yet so learn it grow better and add your hours into the project make to a lot of hours learn and try try how how it fits to you so this is one thing going becoming like a project assistant sometimes companies offer also they advertise these positions layer like called junior project manager project assistant assistant project management manager or project coordinator these are all related positions which give you like an access into the project management career which is great yeah how long do you have to stay on such an assistant position before you become a project manager well it depends really under the company on the size of the project on the company culture and so on but in my case as I said it took about a year sometimes it can take two years it depends you know one also on whether how many projects are being launched if there are any personal changes in the project leadership so just wait let everybody know that you are interested in becoming a project manager and do the work is are you are you ready for the job and what what skills should you bring to the to this work when you're interested I would say a couple of things first you you have to like working with people so if you if you don't feel comfortable being in a large group of people and in raising your voice then it's probably the project manager is probably not the best job for you you have to be comfortable in that situation and like to to share your ideas discuss your ideas and maybe sometimes have arguments with people it happens the second part communication I learned that also I wasn't the best one when I started out but I learned how to communicate clearly and effectively to a lot of people you have to at least be willing to to practice and to overcome your fears let's say for example if you're if you don't like standing in front of a lot of people to give a presentation you have to do that frequently as a project manager so that is something you can practice but it takes a lot of courage and sometimes just things won't go the way you would have liked and it's just how it is so fail and learn yeah third the third skill I want to stress is the ability to deal to work well under stress under pressure because you will be really squeezed into different maybe in conflicting streams in your at your project different different agendas and the work is a lot of working hours are usually long and and then suddenly things happen in your projects um sometimes things go wrong and you have to deal with it and a lot of things can go wrong at the same time it just can happen but instead of just you know hiding and being scared and being overwhelmed you have to keep your composure and and tackle the problem very rationally think about how you can what's what possibilities for a solution exist and decide for a way to go and do all this without being you know feeling really and the pressure just staying calm and thinking clearly and not everybody likes to do that of course when they are ready under time pressure especially some people feel really uncomfortable than to make a more meaningful decision now if you are seriously interested in becoming a project manager go to my website tactical project manage calm and you'll find a lot of articles teaching you the knowledge and the skills about project management not just as I said the technical part but also very interesting aspects like communication and in psychology that's what I am heavily focusing on I'm also working on a course online course which is going to be released in the next three months and if you are interested in that then just join my email list you'll find the forum on the on the website and also I'm giving you here my email address so if you have any questions about becoming a project manager what skills do I need how should I take this idea in my specific case send me an email with a question and I'm trying to help as best as I can so thank you for watching guys see you again soon in another video and thanks for liking or sharing my video have a great day bye